Les Jones

Have you tried looking at the list of available networks on the PC? I had something similar happen when some neighbors added a wireless router in their house and their router was interfering with mine in certain parts of the house. The laptop in the living room was usually OK, but anything in the outer areas would have intermittent connectivity.

If you see new networks that weren’t there before, take a look to see what channels they’re using. I see that you mentioned that you’d already changed the channel on your router, but what most people don’t know is that WiFi channels are defined such that they overlap one another to some extent, and the only channels that can operate without overlap are 1,6, and 11. That is, if your neighbor is using 1, you could use 6 or 11. Where it gets really tricky is if you’ve got people around you using all three. Then you have to either choose to use the channel that has the weakest external signal in your house in the hopes of overpowering it, or choose one of the other channels in the middle and live with a bit of overlap (it will work, but I always prefer to have my radios on clear channels of their own).

Another issue I ran into had to do with a system that didn’t have enough RAM. It’s a laptop that is running XP, and over time as I added software and upgraded things, the system got slower and slower. Eventually, I started noticing that it would lose its wireless connection every night (this laptop is always on) while the virus scanner was running. Adding RAM fixed the problem. My best guess is that it was swapping so much that it slowed down to the point where the driver just couldn’t stay connected.

If it’s just an interference issue, you should consider an external antenna. You mentioned buying a new card, but if the antenna can be unscrewed from the current card you may be able to replace it with an external one that you can place in a better position relative to the router. That would be easier than replacing the whole card (and dealing with the hassle of replacing the drivers).

Finally, I don’t know how much you know about radio wave propagation, but knowing a little about how antennas radiate can help you in positioning the PC and router to potentially get a little bit more signal. Both antennas need to have the same orientation (i.e. vertical or horizontal) and they need a clear line-of-sight to get the best signal. Every wall or other object between the two will attenuate the signal somewhat. Further, the angle that the signal takes when going through a wall or obstacle matters, as a signal hitting at an angle has to go through more of the material than one hitting perpendicular to the obstacle’s face. So if you’ve recently moved the computer, the router, the antennas on either, or put in new furniture you could be affecting the signal strength.

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An external antenna will make a huge difference. Because the antenna is “behind” the PC, all of the fans, the power supply and even the case interfere with the 2.4GHz signal. Just get an external antenna and put it up and away from the PC (or even on top is fine) so that it has a line to the Linksys that doesn’t have anything that will interfere with the signal (TV, cable box, another PC, microwave, 2.4Ghz wireless phone, etc).

I can’t see any other wireless networks. I only have one neighbor who’s halfway close - maybe 150 feet away.

Moving the PC or desk isn’t an option without rearranging a big room full of furniture. And the puzzler is that this all worked reliably three or four months ago.

“Another issue I ran into had to do with a system that didn’t have enough RAM. It’s a laptop that is running XP, and over time as I added software and upgraded things, the system got slower and slower.”

I’ve got four gigs of RAM, but you bring up a good point. I assumed this was a hardware problem. I never considered it could be a software conflict of some sort.

I can think of at least two programs I’ve installed on that desktop PC in the past few months (AVast and Spybot) that are always running. That would also explain why the laptops aren’t affected - they aren’t running that software. I’ll try disabling those programs tonight.

Generally speaking, you don’t need a special card to use an external antenna.

Most PCI wifi cards, or onboard wifi, have a micro-sma connector; which is a standard for WiFi antennae. Any high gain antennae from D-link or Hawking will help; and can be placed in a better location.

Also what kind of cordless phones do you have in your house?

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They’re Uniden 5.8GHz phones. We’ve also got some Radio Shack wireless intercoms for my mom, frequency unknown. We’ve had all that stuff for years and it isn’t causing problems for the laptops, so I don’t think that’s it.

Good info about the antenna. Could save me some money if I go that route.

Funny thing: as I’m typing this the Google ad at the bottom of the page is showing an ad for “WiFi-Link High Power USB Adapter! Long Range!! Easy Setup!! Stable WiFi signal!!” Google Adsense is on the ball with those contextual ads.

I fixed a similar problem by putting a high gain antenna on the wireless hub. Only thing is you need to make sure you have the right type of connector for you hub. I solved that issue by buying the antenna from the manufacturer (linksys) of the hub, though that’s not necessary.

It’s not the easiest solution, but I would recommend installing the dd-wrt firmware on your router (if it is supported). I have had great luck with my setup. The dd-wrt firmware gives you the option of increasing the transmit power of your router along with a ton of features not included in the standard firmware.

Will,

Unfortunately, the later revisions of the WRT routers don’t have enough internal flash ram to run the full firmware; and installation of the micro sized firmware is kinda iffy.

If you have an earlier revision however, I would highly recommend trying it out.

Also, the best option is to replace both your access point antenna(e), as well as that of the PCI card. Linksys makes replacement antennae for the WRT family (as do third parties), and dlink and hawking have high gain antennae for the cards AND the access points.

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I tried uninstalling a slew of recent software programs one at a time and rebooting. No dice. Same problems as before.

I’ll try that firmware. This is about a five year old router, so it may be compatible.

[...] month ago I wrote about my WiFi problem. The laptops connected fine, but the desktop in the back bedroom would no longer get a usable [...]